INVESTIGATING CLASSROOM INTERACTION IN ELT: A MODIFIED FIACS-BASED STUDY AT ONE ISLAMIC SECONDARY SCHOOL

Abstract

In many English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts, students tend to remain passive listeners rather than active participants. This imbalance in the classroom interaction impedes the development of learners’ communicative competence and reduces their overall engagement in the learning process. This study aimed to analyze teacher talk and student talk in grade 12 classrooms at SMAS IT Al-Kautsar, which has two classrooms: Annisa’s class (female) and Arrijal’s class (male). It explored the quantity of teachers and students’ talk in ELT and the patterns of increasing students’ talk during classroom activities. Using classroom observations, the researchers applied Zhao’s modified Flanders Interaction Analysis Category System (FIACS) to analyze interactional patterns and identify the patterns that increase students’ talk. Unlike previous FIACS-based studies that focused primarily on university or foreign-language contexts, this study offers a novel insight by applying the modified FIACS to the Islamic Senior High School classroom, revealing interactional dynamics in gender-segregated learning environments. The findings reveal that teacher talk dominates classroom interaction, accounting for an average of 58.42%, while student talk accounts for only 41.58%, indicating a teacher-centered learning environment. Further analysis identified that the pattern of increasing students’ talk is the “ask closed questions” subcategory. The “ask closed questions” subcategory is more conducive to fostering student engagement, while the “declarative lecture” subcategory prioritizes structured teacher input. Overall, the study emphasizes the importance of teachers adopting more student-centered strategies to strike a balance between classroom interaction and promoting active student participation in English-speaking activities.